Please read the Author's note at the end of the chapter, hope you enjoy the chapter :) (not my image above)
It felt like his heart was closing in on itself. It felt like his lungs were being squeezed, slowly in agony, inching him towards an inevitable panic attack.
Bucky didn't think he knew this base. He knew it existed it, but he didn't think he knew it. All that was proven wrong as soon as they landed, and the mysterious steel walls shadowed the camouflaged jet. The memories were so distant he almost had to reach out and grasp onto to them to hold on, however, they were there. How many people had he killed and tortured here?
How many times was his mind wiped and replaced with a clean slate?
Shuri was right. This is a terrible idea. Bucky should be healing. He should be back on his farm, feeding his goats, or playing with the curious village children. But no. Steve says he needs help and Bucky didn't think twice.
'Idiot. Idiot, idiot, idiot. You're supposed to think things through, not launch yourself back into another battle.'
Bucky has to shake the pestering thoughts from his head. He's good. He's clean. Hydra can no longer control him with the mutter of measly words.
"James?" Natasha's hand gently laying on his shoulder snaps the soldier back into reality. "Are you okay?"
Bucky swallows, nodding. "Just thinking," Forcing a tight smile, he adds, "I'm fine."
The Red Room soldier doesn't seem to believe her teammate, but nods, nonetheless.
"Are we ready to head out?" Steve stands up from the co-pilot seat, picking up a vibranium gun that had been resting in his lap.
"And go kill these sons of bitches?" Sam raises from the pilot's seat, nodding firmly. "Always."
"Alright then. Let's go defeat Hydra."
<><><>
Power. What a word. What a feeling. Power. There's nothing quite like it. Feeling the rush of superiority pumping through your veins... who gives a damn about morals when you have power?
Dimochka smirks to himself at the thought. All this time, he sat below Rumlow, waiting and listening to his orders and plans like some mutt. He could've built Hydra into an empire all this time, if perhaps his boss wasn't such an idiot. Once he successfully transmits the files into The Winter Soldier's mind, he will be a God to the other agents. Sure, the girl may never function properly again, but what does that matter? She was tainted, anyhow. It wouldn't be long before Rumlow saw that, and by then, there would only be two outcomes to the situation. Dispose of Raina like he should have done months ago, or allow the meaningless mentor/student relationship he had formed with her take over, exposing him as the weak minded leader he is. This way, Rumlow will be forced to dispose of Raina and start anew. With a more powerful soldier. Or better. Dimochka will be able to convince the others to kill off Rumlow all together.
Raina's body shook in seizure like fashion as the ripples of electricity and radiation clawed through her veins, quite literally prying her brain open and forcing information into it. She couldn't think, or move, or speak. She was paralyzed, and all she wanted was for the pain to stop. Never has she felt pain like this before. Not in all her years as the Winter Soldier. It felt as if someone- something- was ripping her skull open with their bare hands, then proceeding to attempting to crush her skull with a mallet. Someone may as well have been jamming metal sticks through her brain, and her veins were burning vigorously. She should've known better than to trust Dimochka. But who gives a shit about that now? Her body felt like it was about to explode into a million pieces.
"Damn it," Dimcohka mutters as he sees trickles of blood beginning to emit from Raina's nose, eyes, and ears. He rushes to change a few numbers, but it doesn't seem to help. A sputter of blood just flies out her throat from between the mouthpiece.
She's going to die. A shame, but her internal hard drive will keep the files alive. If she can just stay alive long enough for everything to get transmitted...
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" So close. So close to this all working, but of course he has to come and mess it up. Dimcohka slowly turns around, finding himself staring straight into the barrel of a pistol.
"What you're too much of a coward to," He spits back.
"Step back," Dimcohka holds his head high, mounted in place above the controls.
"I wasn't asking," Rumlow growls, firing his gun twice. He's too angry to aim, so both rip through the threw flesh of Dimochka's leg and stomach. The scientist tumbles to the ground in a cry of pain, allowing Rumlow a clear entry to the controls to find out how to stop this.
"You can't stop this! You will kill Hydra!" Dimochka cries in agony, kicking with his good leg at his superior. The weak hit somehow manages to catch Rumlow off guard enough for him to stumble and drop his gun, which allows Dimochka to launch forward with a pained grunt.
"Bastard," Rumlow struggles up, breathing heavily. He freezes as soon as he sees the weak and nearly dead scientist holding the gun up.
"I have wanted to do this," Dimochka coughs out a wad of blood, holding his head high. He doesn't hesitate to press his finger into the trigger, a single bullet ripping through the air and lodging itself into Rumlow's right calf, igniting a painful scream. "Since Wakanda," Second shot, messily into his shoulder. "Since you showed your first signs of despair and weakness," Third, into the left thigh. "Since you proved you are unfit and too soft to ever lead anything. And now, you get to sit here and die, watching someone you have come to care for die with you," The last shot is the only one that reaches where Dimochka was hoping it would. Right through Rumlow's abdomen.
"You talk to much," Rumlow chokes, blood sputtering from his lips. "They'll kill you for this. N-no one will want a psychopath to lead them, not even these knuckleheads," He's stalling, using the spare time to fish out the small pocket knife resting underneath his belt. He had almost forgotten it was there.
"What do I care what they think?" Dimochka cackles, waving the gun around as he stumbles like a drunken sailor. Murky green eyes dart to Raina, who somehow still remains conscious. Her face is streaked with crimson, flowing down her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth like a river. It's horrifying, yet marvelous, all at the same time. All the brain power... it's a shame she has to die.
"You should always care what your superiors think, Roman," Rumlow sneers, using the last bits of his energy to hurl the knife. It's a messy throw. It shouldn't make it, not even on a good day. The knife is dull and Rumlow's arm is weak. But, perhaps, some force in the universe is working on his side for once in his life. In his soon to be over life, something is rooting for him.
For that dull, weakly thrown knife lodges itself perfectly into the scientist's head with a sickening thunk, shutting him up immediately. Rumlow watches his body drop to the floor, finally dead.
"S-should've done that ages ago," He murmurs, feeling his consciousness slip as he leans his head against the wall. He can't get up. Wherever Dimochka managed to shoot, it must have hit some bundle of nerves. His legs have lost all feel, and that same fate has begun to travel to his one good arm.
"Sorry, kid," He whispers through a puddle of blood between his teeth.
"Rumlow, you son of a bitch."
"Dammit," Rumlow rolls his eyes, gazing up. "Well if it isn't Mr. America himself. How'd life- *koff*- t-treating ya, Cap?"
"I have eyes on Rumlow," Steve presses into his com, looking up at Raina. "And Winter. I need backup, now!" The empty silence of static is alarming.
"D-don't bother," Rumlow squints into the harsh light of the laboratory. "No signal down here."
"What did you do to her?!" Steve rushes to Raina to get her out.
"I did nothing," Rumlow's eyes narrow at Dimochka's dead body. "That asshole did this. I don't know how to stop it, but- *koff*- I do know t-that if you take her out while the machine is running, she'll -d-die."
"Liar," Steve spits, but he doesn't have the time to hover over Rumlow and exchange insults. He also cannot risk killing Raina, so he instead rushes to the control panel, hands hovering over the numerous buttons. Technology isn't exactly his best forte. There is a real girl stuck somewhere inside the Winter Soldier, and he needs to save her.
There has to be a code somewhere, right? Some sort of backup codes to stop the process? Only an idiot would do something like this and make it irreversible. Steve may hate them, but he knows both Dr. Dimochka and Brock Rumlow are no idiots.
"What's the fail safe?!" He yells over Raina's screams, whipping around to face his enemy.
"Search him," A dying Rumlow's eyes dart to Dimochka. Normally, Steve would never take Rumlow's words, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Steve grunts as he turns the scientist over and sees the knife lodged into his skull, but tries to pay it no attention as he begins to search the lab coat pockets. The Captain lets out a quiet sigh of relief when he finally fishes out a piece of paper that isn't a receipt for coffee. It has no other words except for a series of letters and numbers, which is enough.
Steve jumps out and jams them into the computer, however, nothing changes. "It's not working!"
"T... th... rint..." Rumlow coughs out, his life slipping away. Steve glares at his, throwing his hands up.
"What?! What is it? What am I missing?"
"Print," He manages out as his eyes begin to drift closed. Steve eyes widen in realization.
"Thumb print," He leans down and grabs Dimochka's limp body with one hand, using his other hand to retype the code and press the Russian's thumb into the keypad.
Blue eyes watch in worried anticipation as the machine continues to shoot electricity and radiation into Raina's body... until it finally dies down.
The machine's lights flicker off, Raina's body falling limp into the chair. Her face is pale and slicked with sweat and blood. Steve runs up and rips off the restraints, gently taking her out of the chair. There's a heartbeat, but it's so weak he almost doesn't catch it.
"You'll pay for everything you did," Steve spits at Rumlow through gritted teeth. "For using a child for your own criminal organization."
Rumlow may be dying, but he still has so much left to say. Perhaps that's where the last surge of adrenaline comes from.
"I'm n-not the first," He manages out. "A-and before you g-g-go. S-see her files, C-Cap," That's it. It won't be as satisfying as seeing the looks on their faces when they read who Raina truly is, but it's enough to send Rumlow into the light with a happy heart.
"Oh no you don't," Steve grunts, shifting Raina in his arms to pluck out a Wakandan Kimoyo bead from his holster. Shuri had given each of them a few to use in case of emergency wounds in the battlefield, or if they needed needed help from the hidden country. Steve isn't exactly sure how either of them will feel about him using them to save a sociopathic criminal's life, but he can't just let Rumlow die. He needs to be punished for his crimes, and Steve wants to see to it.
The soldier jams the bead into the bloody hole in Rumlow's stomach, the Vibranium doing it's magic and keeping the injury sustained for the time being. Rumlow's consciousness has slipped as well, which is a good sign. Getting out of here should be easy.
"Steve!" Sam swoops down in front of the doorway, coming to a running stop and peeking in the room through the small window on the steel door. He's been stabbed in the shoulder, but seems fine despite that.
"Took your time," Steve nods to his teammate, whose confusion is quite evident on his features.
"What the hell happened here?" Sam mutters, mostly to himself, as he observes the knife sticking out of Dimochka's skull, Rumlow's bullet littered body, and Raina unconscious, streaked with her own blood.
"I think we just won," He doesn't say it like a victory; more of a tired statement, if anything. Like he's voicing his thoughts that it may rain later that day. It doesn't feel real enough to use the little bits of energy he has left.
"Barnes and Nat are loading the jet with prisoners and files," Sam explains. Steve nods.
"Take Raina. I'll come in a bit with Rumlow with the remaining files left on the computer," He'll tell Sam, and the rest of team, what he finds as soon as he sees the files Rumlow was referring to. For now, they just need to clear out the base.
Sam takes the weakening Winter Soldier, Steve watching him jog down the halls and to the jet. As soon as he's sure the hero's gone, Steve runs over to the computers and searches the database for Raina's files. It doesn't take long to find them, but as soon as he does, he freezes.
She was fifteen years old, homeless, and had been kidnapped by Hydra. A child. A child used for Hydra's own personal agenda. Steve's blood boils as he continues to read on. The file says she was taken as a back up for Bucky, due to her DNA, however, it doesn't say why. What could be so special about her DNA?
The super soldier continues to scroll through her files, through the countless reports and stories of her time in Hydra. He just needs to find her first file, and perhaps everything will click together. It takes a bit of time, but finally, the file comes into view. He clicks on it, waiting patiently as it loads and a list of her biological information comes pops up.
Steve squints at the screen, reading slowly. Fifteen years old, brunette, female, blue eyes, 120 pounds, 5'6", Blood type AB negative ...
Her mother, Josephine Clifford, died of a sickness when she was young. Her father...
No.
That's can't be right.
Steve's blood has run cold as he stumbles back from the screen.
There has to be some sort of mistake here. He smacks the side of the computer a few times, but the information ceases to change.
Siblings... she has siblings. Four, to be exact. This can't be right. It has to be wrong. For the team's sake, there has to some sort of mistake.
Steve fingers shake as he scrolls down to the list of siblings, and a sense of dread settles in the pit of his stomach.
At the top of that list, one name taunts him. He thought he had finally gotten one step ahead of Hydra.
After all these years, he should have known.
The very first name, bolded with hundreds of files of their own...
James Buchanan Barnes.
"Oh my God," Steve whispers. "She's Bucky's sister."
Author's Note:
...
Hi.... Okay, so first off, I want to sincerely apologize for how long I took to upload this chapter. If I'm being completely honest, I have no one to blame but myself. I do have writer's block, however, that isn't the only reason I've been taking so long to write chapters lately. I won't explain the long list of reasons of why I have been so distant, because I feel like a writing site is not the place to do that. However, I will apologize, and try to be better. I can't promise anything, but I really do try to upload chapters. I appreciate every one of you that reads and comments and message me, and I will never stop appreciating you. I see every comment, and every time someone says something about the story, I smile. It warms my heart to know that some of you out there enjoy this book, and that alone is the reason I will continue to write and upload chapters to the best of my ability.
Anyways, I really do hope you guys enjoyed this forever anticipated chapter! You have no idea how long I have wanted to write this, and I finally have!!! It's a long one, too, at 2834 words! It only gets better from here, guys.
Again, sorry for taking so long to update, ily guys so much! Don't forget to vote, share, and comment on this chapter!
-pizza_loving_weirdo